Wednesday, November 08, 2017 12:10 pm

Macedonia ex-security chief convicted about wiretap scandal

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- A court in Macedonia has convicted a former domestic intelligence chief of tampering with evidence linked to a wiretapping scandal that plunged the country into political crisis.

The court Wednesday sentenced Goran Grujevski, a former head of the Department for Counterintelligence and Security, to 18 months in prison for forging documents and destroying evidence.

Six other agency officials received suspended sentences of between nine and 12 months.

Grujevski was not present in court. He is in neighboring Greece, awaiting trial and court hearings for entering the country on false identification documents last month, and for a Macedonian extradition request to be examined.

Macedonia suffered a protracted political crisis during the previous conservative government about the wiretapping of thousands of judges, police, politicians, foreign diplomats and journalists.